Four years after agreeing to a wage freeze and reduced contributions to their health and retirement plans, BART workers are back at the table for contract talks that appear as though they could be more toxic than in 2009, when there were repeated threats of work stoppages and strikes.
The biggest issues in the contract talks are wages and compensation, including health care and pension contributions.
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Yet another salvo has been launched in the ongoing, polarizing and divisive Israel-Palestine debate — and it’s on Muni.
Several San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency buses bearing a pro-Palestine, anti-Israel advertisement are currently ferrying The City’s commuters.
The ads, paid for by American Muslims for Palestine, feature a quote from Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu comparing the situation in the Holy Land to apartheid in South Africa, along with a reminder that Israel receives about $3 billion in foreign aid from the U.S.
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The new $6.3 billion eastern portion of the Bay Bridge still “has a fighting chance” to open this year, despite concerns over structural issues, officials overseeing its construction said Tuesday.
Citing myriad problems that have dogged the span’s construction, state lawmakers grilled the officials overseeing the project about the decision to use a specific type of seismic safety rods, 32 of which broke after being tightened in March.
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San Francisco rideshare companies Uber and Lyft have been asked by an administrative law judge to produce sealed copies of both their umbrella and excess liability insurance policies, along with proof that they are providing workers’ compensation for employees.
Judge Robert Mason’s order comes as part of an ongoing rule-making process that will ultimately decide whether Uber and Lyft—along with similar companies SideCar, Tickengo, TransForm and InstantCab—have to abide by the same rules that govern traditional taxis.
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Bike rentals in city parks got off to a rough start when one location was overrun by an Occupy San Francisco encampment, city officials said. But now with an expansion planned for Ocean Beach and an additional Golden Gate Park location, the Recreation and Park Department hopes to improve the experience in The City.
In March 2011, a five-year lease was approved by the Board of Supervisors between Rec and Park and Parkwide Activities LLC to operate bike rental locations in public parks.
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The Federal Highway Administration on Monday said it is investigating California’s response to broken steel seismic safety rods on the new span of the Bay Bridge.
Spokesman Doug Hecox said the agency has launched its review after it received a request by state bridge officials, but it did not have an idea of how long the probe would take. The agency will examine Caltrans’ conclusion about the cause of the rod failure and the state’s recommended fix.
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More than 100 feet below the roiling waters of the Bay lies BART’s Transbay Tube, one of the region’s most impressive engineering feats — a path that acts as a portal for nearly 200,000 passengers travelling each day between the East Bay and San Francisco.
Tucked neatly into a protective trench on the floor of the Bay, the tube is nonetheless exposed to the elements of corrosive saltwater, and, more troubling, an occasional misplaced ship anchor.
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The death of Olympic gold medalist Andrew Simpson, who was trapped underwater after the Artemis Racing team’s 72-foot high-tech catamaran capsized and broke apart in a training run Thursday, was precisely the type of incident that critics of billionaire Larry Ellison’s approach to the America’s Cup have feared.
The new boats were selected by Ellison after his Oracle team won the Cup in 2010. Under the race rules, the winners decide where and how the next competition is held.
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The new painted transit-only lane on Church Street — designed to keep private vehicles out of the way of Muni vehicles — appears to be paying dividends for the agency.
Since a layer of red paint was laid down on a three-block stretch of the street, the 22-Fillmore has had a 5 percent reduction in travel time and a 20 percent increase in reliability along that stretch, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which manages Muni.
The red paint was put down in March between Duboce Avenue and 16th Street — the most congested stretch of Church Street.
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Seemingly every motorist in San Francisco has a tale of being unfairly ticketed by an overzealous parking control officer.
Fewer drivers though have as much exonerating evidence available as Beth Chen, a Forest Hill resident who was recently hit with a $62 ticket that accuses her of overstaying a two-hour time limit near the Stonestown YMCA.
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